Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones holds out hope that cornerback Morris Claiborne can live up to the potential the team saw when it traded up to select him with the sixth overall pick in the 2012 draft.

Jones infamously declared that Claiborne was the best cornerback prospect since Deion Sanders after the Cowboys traded their top two picks to the St. Louis Rams to move up eight spots two years ago. Earlier this week, Jones acknowledged that Claiborne had not been what the Cowboys had hoped up to this point, an obvious admission about a cornerback who has been picked on consistently throughout his career.

Claiborne has been in the national spotlight this week after hastily leaving the team's training facility Tuesday when informed that Orlando Scandrick would start over him, skipping the Cowboys' walk-through practice, film session and meetings. Claiborne, who was beat out for the starting job last year, as well, apologized before the team meeting the next morning and will play Sunday night against the New Orleans Saints.

"He's in the right place with his heart," Jones said Friday on 105.3 The Fan. "He's an outstanding talent, outstanding athlete. Has got a lot of work to do and has missed the evolving that you'd expect a young player in the NFL to have because of various injuries, various reasons.